In order to vote in primary elections for partisan offices, a voter must have identified a political party affiliation when registering to vote and can vote only for candidates of that party. Voters who have not identified a political party affiliation can not vote for candidates running for partisan office in primary elections. These voters, however, can vote for candidates for nonpartisan offices and on propositions.
For every primary election, the elections official in each county is required to prepare a partisan ballot for each political party and a nonpartisan ballot for voters who have not identified a political party affiliation.
Proposal
This measure allows all persons who are entitled to vote in primary elections, including those not affiliated with a political party, to vote for any candidate regardless of the candidate's political party affiliation. Thus, voters in primary elections would be allowed to vote for candidates across political party lines. Furthermore, the initiative provides that county elections officials prepare only one ballot for all voters. The candidates for an office would be listed randomly on the ballot and not grouped by political party affiliation. The candidate of each political party who receives the most votes for a state elective office becomes the nominee of that party at the next general election.
These provisions do not apply to elections of political party committee members. In these elections, voters would be restricted to voting for candidates of their own political party affiliation.
Fiscal Effect
This measure would have no direct fiscal impact on the state. Counties could realize unknown, but probably minor savings statewide, primarily due to the preparation of fewer ballots.